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Patch tonight 8/11

Here's a sneak peek at the Game Update notes for Wednesday, August 12, 2009. Please note that these notes may be updated before the update goes live!

* * * Highlights * * *

- Giants Giants Giants: Angered by Norrathian adventurers' blatant disregard for Dragonkind, Tzudani, Emissary of Veeshan, has called adventurers to battle Norrath's greatest and largest foes. Amongst these behemoths there are the giants themselves, foes of the children of Veeshan and one-time rulers of Norrath. Standing in your path will also be massive constructs built by some to protect their homes and by others to destroy the world. Regardless of their origin and purpose, these giants stand ready, unafraid of your tiny blades and feeble magic. Challenge them with your raid force or fight them with but a single group if you are feeling truly brave. Fight against the greatest "big" foes of Norrath, from the Ancient Cyclops to the powerful Lord Brekt. Seek out Tzudani, Emissary of Veeshan in the Plane of Knowledge and heed the call.

- Poison Component Drops: Poison component drops have been increased, mostly at the higher levels. At the higher levels it has been doubled, and the NPCs have been given a chance to drop 1 or 2 components. Humanoid rogues will drop 1 to 4.

- Client Memory Optimizations: The client now uses less memory and has several new modes of operation to allow you to configure memory usage versus performance..
* * * Items * * *
- Removed the Echo of Anger effect from the Discordling War Mask.
- Increased the AC on the tier 4.5 shields from the hard mode raids.
- Put the correct sharpshooting focus on the items with sharpshooting from the hard mode raids.
- Many items with Geomantra have had a shared recast timer added to them.
- The Aspect of the Brood item should now work more consistently.
* * * Quests & Events * * *
- Fixed a problem that could cause one of the chests in the Korafax raids to be killed by NPCs and therefore disappear.
- The gold abacus will now reward players who defeated any number of dragons during the Dragons, Dragons, Dragons event. Players who defeated all 20 dragons should remove their current Gold Plated Contact Spring and obtain a new abacus from the Distribution Facilitator in the Plane of Knowledge, as the rewards are now likely to be better.
* * * Spells * * *
- Removed regeneration messages from several recently added buffs.
- Prolonged Destruction "charges" will no longer be consumed by spell procs or melee procs.
- Promised Recuperation will no longer be overwritten by inferior promised healing spells.
- The cast times on the Pure Wildmagic spells triggered by Wildmagic Strike will now match the cast times of Wildmagic Strike.
- The pets summoned by Rank II and III of Minion of Sebilis will now come equipped with the appropriate mod items.
- Changed the name of some of the common click effects to make the upgrade path clearer.
- Circle of Life and Circle of Mana effects have had their level decay removed.
- The Messenger Bane poisons have been given an extra tick of duration to make them more reliable. They still will not be perfect if you get a bad run.
* * * Tradeskills * * *
- Poison component drops have been increased, mostly at the higher levels. At the higher levels it has been doubled, and the NPCs have been given a chance to drop 1 or 2 components. Humanoid rogues will drop 1 to 4.
- The Messenger Bane poisons have been given an extra tick of duration to make them more reliable. They still will not be perfect if you get a bad run.
- The Rogue vendor only poisons are now easier to make.
- The refining steps in the make poison skill are now easier.
* * * AA * * *
- Resolved several conflicts with the Monk's Third Spire of the Sensei abilities.
- The description for the Shadow Knight AA Mortal Coil has changed to accurately reflect how the ability functions.
* * * Mercenaries * * *
- Corrected an issue with the minotaur mercenaries that was causing them to spawn with 0 endurance.
- Corrected an issue with the Siren Mercenaries that was causing them to be less effecient then other healer mercs.
* * * Spam Filter * * *
- We've added a SPAM filtering for chat.
- Messages flagged as spam will appear as "Soandso tells you, (SPAM)". Clicking the word (SPAM) in the chat window will display the filtered message.
- You may also completely disable the display of SPAM flagged messages in your Options->Filters page.
- Clicking someone's name in the chat window will bring up a menu that allows you to report what they said as either spam or not spam (in case the message was mis-flagged as spam). The information reported is used to refine the SPAM filter (it does not take effect immediately).
- In-game Mail can also be filtered for SPAM. Mail flagged as SPAM will have its subject replaced by "SPAM". Buttons have been added to the mail window to report emails as spam or not spam (in case they are mis-flagged as spam).
* * * Client Memory Optimizations * * *
- The client now uses less memory and has several new modes of operation to allow you to configure memory usage versus performance.
- There are four modes of operation selectable in the Options->Display->Advanced window:

Least memory usage--This is the most aggressive mode. It only loads graphical assets on demand (at the time they are needed) and is aggressive about unloading assets when memory usage goes up. In this mode you may see gray textures as things load.

Balanced memory usage--This mode tries to minimize the visibility of gray textures while still being fairly aggressive about unloading assents when memory usage goes up.

Most memory usage--This is the default mode. This mode loads all assets needed for a zone while you are zoning, but only loads what is needed for what is currently in the zone. This mode still consumed less than we used before the optimizations.

Original--Loads all assets as before the optimizations. This mode should only be used as a fallback in case of problems with the other three modes. This mode will eventually be phased out.

* * * Miscellaneous * * *
- You can now map the mouse buttons 3-8 to in game commands in the Options->Keys menu.
- Fixed a problem where the train button was available for AAs that you could not afford to buy.
- Fixed a problem with bandoliers and attunable items.
- Fixed a problem in the bazaar where having separate versions of the same item with different charges and price caused the bazaar to only use the newer price..
- Updated to latest voice SDK.
- Fixed a problem with the right click effect on Vibrating Gauntlets of Infuse.
- Fixed a client crash when inspecting certain buffs.
- Fixed an issue that caused the welcome screen to take longer than necessary to come up.

* * * Previously Updated * * *
- The algorithm used to generate rewards from the Living Legacy abaci has been changed. If you were one of the affected people, please obtain a new abacus in the Plane of Knowledge and re-click.
- Fixed a problem that could cause one of the chests in the Korafax raids to be killed by NPCs and therefore disappear.
- Fixed a bug that caused Pallorax not to spawn when he should.
- The Kurn's Tower Hard raid will now drop the appropriate chest.